Does the look and design of a Mac affect you?

[sekker]

I think the look of the laptops is nice to have but irrelevant to me personally.

But I've been using Macs since I cobbled together an SE from four broken machines as a grad student.

I think the look of the new MacBook is going to sell a lot of machines. But I ordered four 13" MBPRs recently because they are far more useful machines.

[Robert M]

pRICE,

As a followup to my post I'll say this. The functionality of a computer is more important to me than anything else. Doesn't matter if it's a Mac, Windows, or iOS machine. I must be able to complete tasks and I don't want the design of the machine to interfere with doing that.

Look at the Macbook. I use flash drives and external drives regularly. The design interferes with my work flow because I can't keep it charged and use multiple drives simultaneously. As a primary machine it isn't workable. To make it workable I'd need the dongle _and_ a USB 3.0 hub.

As a secondary machine I'd still need the dongle to ensure I can charge the machine and use even just one USB peripheral simultaneously. That's more doable. Not preferable by any means but doable. A second USB-C port would've been enough. One for power. One for peripherals.

I'm now working under the assumption Apple is going to continue with this pattern. Make the machines more difficult or impossible to replace or upgrade components. Remove ports it deems unnecessary, even if it follows up the workflow of its users. I think this is a reasonable assumption based on the machines Apple releases now.

Unfortunately, if Apple continues the pattern, I can see myself buying used or refurbed older models because I want that basic functionality. Or, worst case, moving to a Windows machine. I don't want to do it but if that's what is necessary to maintain my workflow, so be it.

Robert

[Blankity Blank]

The aesthetics of a Mac is tremendously valuable to me but is far from the most important aspect. I love to use beautifully designed devices.

The efficiency of the design, however, is of greater importance. I love the design of the new Mac Pro, but would take a similarly equipped cheese grater -- with ports, etc. configured more closely to that design -- over the current Mac Pro without having to think twice, were it available.

For quite awhile now the design of the various Macs have been trending away from 'tool' and closer to appliance. That is much to the detriment of my desired uses. But truth be told, it could easily be argued that the combination of aesthetics and efficiency that were and are my ideal were no more than momentary happy circumstance along a trek toward inevitable appliancehood.

Apple hasn't moved far enough down that road for me to part ways with them, but I can see the off ramp from here.

[jdc]

Does no one remember 1999?

*everything* in the entire world that was made of plastic all the sudden was translucent and bondi blue. Then of course a year later everything was translucent and some fun color.

The look of a mac may not effect you, but then it can effect the entire world around it.

Robert, Im really missing the point of your thoughts on the new Macbook. You can't apply your individual needs to any one product? I could just change a few words and give you that same argument back:

Look at the new Corvette. I haul plywood and tow a boat regularly. This design interferes with my daily driving because it won't do both. As a primary car it isn't workable. To make it workable it would need a bed and more low end torque. etc. Im now under the assumption that all Chevy products are going this way...

Don't get me wrong, I do agree that the lack of internal upgradeability is a big black mark, but there are solutions to remedy some of these. maybe not the most elegant or built in, but they are there.

A new MB would be ideal for my wife. With minimal ram and storage even. Its far more powerful than her current 2008 iMac, which only has a 320 GB drive about half full. And a HUGE portion of that is photos from her iPhone. She never plugs anything into it except power. Wireless net, wireless printing, dropbox, pandora and flickr. No local storage necessary.

Please post long rebuttal. =)

[A-Polly]

pRICE, I'm with you. I don't know if it is the actual appearance of the machine that does it for me, but something about the Mac makes my computing world a much more appealing place. I have no complaints about the functioning of the large and very capable Windows laptop I use at the office (well, other than that it needed a new power supply, new keyboard, and new hard drive within its first 2 years), but using it all day makes me long to come home and hug my iMac! :emoticon_love: When teleworking, I often just set the laptop aside and use my own machine, where, as you said, the environment just seems to encourage a more artistic mindset (my work is primarily with the Adobe CC apps).

Perhaps it is similar to how some people find pleasure in driving a high-end car, and others don't care.

[mrlynn]

I used to admire my little SEs; I still do, actually. They had personality, which the big boxy PCs didn't:



But then, I liked my UMAX J700 Mac clone, too. It was not beautiful to look at, but it was still more stylish than the average PC, and it was a Mac, sort of:



I gave it to my Number One Son Andy, who took it to college and souped it up. It was "built like a tank."

I still have my blue G3, too; now that's a neat-looking computer!

I bought my 27" iMac because I saw it in the Apple Store, and fell in love with the display.

So yes, "the look and design of a Mac" affects me—even when it's not a Mac.

/Mr Lynn

[silvarios]

jdc wrote:
Does no one remember 1999?

*everything* in the entire world that was made of plastic all the sudden was translucent and bondi blue. Then of course a year later everything was translucent and some fun color.

The look of a mac may not effect you, but then it can effect the entire world around it.

I think you meant August 1998, that's when the original iMac started shipping. Here's a counterpoint, http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/10-aweso...-dyson/10/. Translucent plastic? Check. Bondi (and Blueberry) color? Check.

[Lew Zealand]

Function first, with form following function. This is why the new Mini is horridly designed - it has the same external form and function with greatly reduced internal function.

The MacPro's current design is questionable but I'd love to do a poll (OK, maybe I'll set one up here) to see what people are connecting externally to their iTrashcanPro which would have fit internally on the older Pros.

The whole Retina-is-upgradable schtick with the laptops is bloody annoying but at least it *has* a function - to keep travel weight down and the memory subsystem is a bit faster with soldered in RAM. Still, how bloody hard would it be for Apple to keep one current gen 13" and 15" MBPro retina config using the older heavier modular design?

We get mostly professional level Dell desktops and laptops and the USFF Dell desktops are very nice though I have get to see a quad core option from them so they are better than the Minis only in some ways. The full size desktops are the modular design many of us would like for our Mac Midis. You don't spend your time looking at desktop computer unless it's an AIO like the iMac, so desktop form factor is a big meh.

Dell laptop designs are pretty functional, with little concern for form and that is where they fail miserably. You do spend a lot of time looking at your laptop and that's where Apple has hit it's home run - the laptop designs are pretty damn good with very good to excellent function following excellent form. Since most people never upgrade theirs, I believe they have made the right design choices for the vast majority of users.

The issue comes from the minority of us who like a bit of upgradability. Put another way, we still want to max out our Mac but would rather do it over time for less $ instead of up front for more $$$.

[Robert M]

jdc,

I shouldn't have to buy an extra device (or dongle) to restore what I consider basic functionality for _any_ computer. That's the point.

Robert

[pRICE cUBE]

I didn't say design was the only factor. I asked if it was a contributing factor.